The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-08-25
last words on his dying lips being Free


ate and the tongue, and on down until
they were interlined with the vitals of
body, mind and soul; but he has not
taken any stimulants for two years.
What did that? Not temperance socie-
ties. Not prohibition laws. Not moral
suasion. Conversion did it. Why
said one upon whom the great change
had come, ''sir, feel just as though l
were somebody else. "
! There is q sea captain who swore all
the way from New York to Havana, and
from Havana to San Francisco, and
when he was in port he was worse tliax
when lie was on the sea. What power
was it that washed his tongue clean of
! profanitie3, and made him psalm sing
er? Conversion by the Holy Spirit.
/ There are thousands OF people i'll this
| house tonight who are no more what
| they once were than a water lily is night
| shade, or q morning lark is q yuiture, or
day ID night.
| Now, il / should demand that all those
| people ii this house who have felt the
| converting power of religion should rise,
| 80 far from being ashamed, they would
| spring to their feet with more alacrity
| than they ever sIrang to the dance, the
| tears mingling with their exhilaration as
| they cried: 1--WE ere wituesses!'' And
| if they tried to sing The cid Gospel hymn,
they would break down with emotion by
the time they gCs to the second linei
Ashamed Of Jesus. that dear friend
Tn whom ny hopes of heaven depends
| mol. Wien blush he this my shamei
| That l more revere his name.
7 Ilxr,o o,.,
na5sea" Of the Gospels power to comfort
When a man has trouble the world
comes in and says: Now, get your
mind Off this; go cut and breathe the
fresh air; plunge deeper into business" 7"
| What poor advice. ;ieb your mind of Of
It! when everything is upturned with
the bereavement and everything reminds
you Of what you have lost. Get your
mind oil of it! They might as well ad
wise you 10 stop thinking. You cannot
stop thinking, and you cannot stop think
ing in that direction. Take a walk in
the fresh air! Why, along that very
street, or that very road, she once ac-
c0mpanied you. Out OF that grass plot
she plucked flowers, or into that show
window she looked, fascinated, saying:
Come see the pictures. Go deeper
into business! Why. she was associated
with all your business ambition, and
since she has gone you have no ambition
left.
Oh, this is a clumsy world when it
tries to comfort a broken heartl can
build a Corliss engine, / can paint
Raphael's Madonna, can play a Bee
thogen's symphony as easily as this
! IA, nj
vet you have been comforted. How was
it done? Did Christ come to you and
say, Get your mind oil this; go out and
breathe the fresh air. plunge deeper into
business?" No. There was minute
when he came to you-perhaps in the
watches of the night, perhaps in your
place of business, perhaps along the street
and lie breathed something into your
soul that gave peace, rest, infinite quiet,
so tlat you could take out the photo
graph Of the departed one and look into
tie eyes and the face Of tie dear one and
say rs is all righti she is better off,
would not call her hack. Lord, thank
thee that thou hast conforted my poor
heart"
There are Christian parents here who
arc wiling TO testify to the power Of this
Gospel to comfort Your son had just
graduated from school or college and was
going into business and the Lord took
him, Or your daughter had Just gradu-
ated from the young ladies' seminary and
you thought she was going to be useful
woman and of long life, but the Lord
took her and you were tempted to say:
"All this culture Of twenty wears for
| bo Iff+io cI,ilS oo,,,o homo
from school with the hot fever that
stopped not for the agonized prayer or for
the skillful physician, and the little child
was taken. Or the babe was lifted out of
your arms by some quick epidemic and
YOU stood wondering why God ever gave
you that child al all if 50 soon he was to
take Il away. And yet you are not repil-
ing, you are not fretfui, you are not fight
ing against God.
What has enabled you to stand all the
trial? "Oh, ," you say, 81 took the metd-
cine that God gave my sick soul. In nv
distress ] threw myself at the feet OF a
5ympdthizing God and when | was too
weak to pray, or to look up, he breathed
into me peace that think must be the
foreta5te Of ihat heaven where there is
neither a tear, nor a farewell, nor a
grave" Come, all ye who have been
ont to the grave to weep there come, all
ye con1forted sous, Stc s3 Grr off vn"r
knees. Is there no power in this Gospel
to soothe the heart? Is there no power
il this religion to quiet the worst par
Oxysm of grief? There comes up an
answer from comforted widowhoosl, and
orphanage, and chil-ile3sness, sayingi
''Aye, aye. we are witnessesi'
Again, l remark that we arc witnesses
of the fact that religion has power to give
composure i'll the last moment. ! shall
never forget the first time l confronted
death. We went across the cornfields in
the country. l was led by my fathers
hand, and we came to the farmhouse
where the bereavement had come, and
we saw the crowd of wagons and car
riages; but there was one carriage that
especially attracted my boyish attention
and it had black p!umes. l said
ssWhat's that? what's that? Why thoss
black tassels at the top?'' and after it was
: explained to me l was lifted up to iool
upon the bright face Of an aged Christian
woman, who three days before had de
parted in triumph The whole scene
made an impression I never forgot.
In our sermons and in our lay exhorta
tions we are very apt, when we want t.
bring illustrations of dying triumph, t,
l go back to some distinguished personag,
: to John Knox Or a Harriet Newell
! But I want you for witnesses.
want to know if you have ever seer
anything to make you believe that th
. religion of Christ can give composure il
the final hour. Now, in the courts, at
torneys, jury and judge viii never admi
!, mere hearsay. They demand that th
= witness must have seen with his owl
= eyes, or heard with his own ears, and S.
:. l am critical in my examination of yol
: now; and l want to know whether yol
= ! have seen or heard anything that make